About Muir Park

Muir Park was the home of Waikato football for about 30 years, after first being leased from the Muir family in 1964.

Muir Park was the major football venue in Hamilton, the base for Hamilton AFC, and then Waikato United, though was never really developed as a complex. It consisted of one peat-based pitch, a main grandstand backing onto the clubrooms, a separate, relatively shabby changing room block (for away teams and referees) with raised spectator bunds at each end, and dugouts and scoreboard on the Greenwood St side of the park.

In the early 1950s Stewart Muir Senior used a Bren gun carrier to crush 15-foot gorse on he site and create a park.

In its earliest days the park was used for rugby league, and at one stage had a greyhound track running around it, the remains of which could be seen even in the final years in front of the stand. Hamilton AFC was formed in 1964 by the merger of Hamilton Wanderers and Technical Old Boys (though disaffected elements broke way to re-form the Wanderers club a few months later) and Muir Park was established as the base. Hamilton AFC leased the Higgins Rd ground for many years from the Muir Family Trust, and in 1982, having clubrooms well established on site, took up an option from the trust to purchase the ground for $20,000. The club raised over $6000 through debentures, with investors including Claudelands Rovers, as a gesture of thanks for Hamilton’s help when their clubrooms burned down in 1981. Hamilton City Council made an interest-free advance of $10,000 in 1983, and that was due to be written off in 1998. But the park was sold in 1996, and the loan automatically became repayable. Though it was often shabby looking, Muir Park had its own industrial charm and memories, and Hamilton AFC built a fearsome home record there during its northern league title wins of 1972, 1976, 1979 and 1984, and Waikato United won the cup there in 1988. Hamilton formally amalgamated with Waikato United – a club it formed in conjunction with Claudelands Rovers in 1988 specifically to contest the national league - on January 29, 1992. The cost of competing at top level over many years left Waikato United struggling financially and the lack of money in New Zealand football prevented the site ever being fully developed, while as it was privately owned, more often than not it was ineligible for Hillary Commission or local body funding. Trust Bank Waikato had a first mortgage secured over Muir Park, and by 1995 the principal sum of $60,424 was outstanding, after variations to the mortgages hads been made to cover the cost of competing at top level. That original loan had been uplifted in 1983 for a period of 25 years. But since then Hamilton had made interest repayments only, apart from one 1991 principal payment of $5000, as Hamilton’s coffers were emptied ahead of the January 1992 merger with Waikato United. Interest payments dropped from about $1200 a month in 1983 to $4400 a year in 1992.

The park was sold to the Mormon church in early 1996, with the sale going unconditional on March 1. At the time Daryl Muir, grandson of Stewy Muir Snr, publicly opposed the sale, saying the ground should continue as a sports park, as his family had always intended. He argued the club could remain at the park and operate profitably.

But Brian Impson, Waikato United chairman at the time, estimated it cost the club about $20,000 a year in mortgage repayments, rates and ground maintenance. And that had seriously affected the club's ability to finance an elite team. By the time of the 1996 sale, Muir Park’s capital value was down to $260,000 and a government valuation of $210,000 as of October 1992 – less than a third of what it was valued at in the mid-80s.

The sale of the park had first been mooted in 1990 for strategic reasons. But finally it was only undertaken out of financial necessity, with Waikato United $30,000 in debt, after years of administrative under performance and accrued debt. The last big match played at the park was a Waikato United v Napier City Rovers Superclub Championship national round playoff match on October 21 1995 - Waikato won 1-0 - with Waikato moving to Porritt Stadium for the first summer national league season which started in January 1996.

A final "Battle of the Bays" match was played at Muir Park in early January, 1996, due to a clash with athletics at the new venue of Porritt Stadium. Waikato United beat Mt Maunganui 3-0.

GOODBYE MUIR PARK. This photo was taken in May 1996, just prior to the handover of Muir Park to the Mormon Church.

Minutes from Waikato United special meeting, May 16, 1996.

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Joint statement from Waikato United chairman Paul Collins and Melville AFC chair Vicky Stringer to members on the merging of the two clubs, mid-1996.

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